


it's nice to have a friend

by lovrenes



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Has a Crush on Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir-centric, F/M, Fluff, Happy Ending, Hot Mess Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Marichat, Marichat | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Not Beta Read, Oblivious Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, adrien thinks that marinette hates him for a sec, adrienette - Freeform, i love them so much sobs, late night balcony visits, marinette basically go thru a love triangle thing but its the same person so not rlly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-16 15:40:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28958835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovrenes/pseuds/lovrenes
Summary: But then there's Marinette.-Adrien is afraid Marinette still hates him and goes to visit her as Chat Noir.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 7
Kudos: 132





	it's nice to have a friend

Adrien had lived in isolation most of his life.

His parents decided the risk of danger in the outside world would harm him. “Dont play with sticks, Adrien! What if you scratch yourself or get a splinter?”, they would say. He then would dejectedly move back into his room to play board games again. He always somehow managed to get hurt anyways, but they should’ve realized whatever physical injuries he had, he received about a million more mental scars.

And as soon as his mother passed away, he realized that things wouldn’t be any better.

His father was devastated and busied himself with work, leaving Adrien to sit alone at the large dinner table. The only conversations he had with him were quick and monotone. He used to get excited that his father was texting him. He hoped maybe he finally wanted to talk to him, to be like they used to. That excitement faded as he grew used to the schedule changes in his recent messages.

But then, by some stroke of luck, he was let out. He didn’t know how Nathalie managed to convince his father to let him go to school but he was happy, so so happy. And then another thing happened. He met Plagg and got his miraculous. He met Ladybug. He saw Chloe again after years of no interactions. He met Nino. He met Alya. He met Alix. He met Kim. He met Max. The cycle continues until you get to his full class, his friends. They became everything to him.

But then there's Marinette. 

He knew that she didn’t like him at first, and precisely why too but the more time he spent with her, as Adrien, the more he thought her opinions hadn’t changed. She’d stutter and blush, never meeting his eyes and only speaking to him if he spoke first. He would wonder if his apology was good enough, or if he was foolish to believe that she would forgive him. Little did he know.

Then he met Marinette as Chat Noir. He almost felt like his previous assumptions were true. She was so much more confident around him. He wondered if it was because he was a superhero, that maybe she liked Chat Noir and not Adrien for that one singular reason. But he knew Marinette wasn’t like that.

He started visiting her on her balcony more. At first he just made excuses to himself like “I’m just checking up on her. She’s my friend. I can do that, right?”. Plagg laughed and called him lame before returning to smelling his socks and eating cheese. Adrien didn’t give him much time as he transformed after almost a minute of contemplating his decisions.

He flew through the rooftops, smiling wide as the wind ruffled his hair and carried him higher. He stops abruptly at the sight of brightly lit bakery. It seemed her parents were still in there, he assumed probably closing up or cleaning. Nonetheless, he hopped to the decorated balcony above Marinette’s room and stood at the railing, admiring the view. Soon enough there were soft footsteps coming from behind him and he turned around with a grin.

“Chat Noir?” Marinette says, yawning. He struts slowly to her, picking up her right hand daintily and pressing a small kiss to it.

“Hello there, princess. How are you this fine evening?” He says brightly. She looks at him weirdly for a second, but soon decides to join him by the railing and they stand in silence while Marinette tries to come up with an answer.

“I’m good. I think,” She replies, finally. 

“You think?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve been trying to think, but nothing really comes to mind,” Chat noir only hums in response. He didn’t have anything to say to that anyways, but he could get how she felt. That’s how he used to feel, trapped in his own mind, thoughts jumbled to the point where he couldn’t separate or express them. “But what about you, Chat Noir? What are you doing here?”

He flusters, almost as red as the suit of his partner, but with the limited lighting, she didn’t notice.

“Well, you see… I’m here to check up on you? Since um yesterday, the Evillustrator had you and… yeah. I just wanted to make sure you’re okay?”

“You don’t sound so sure,” She giggles. He chuckles too, hand instinctively going to reach the back of his neck. The noise dies down to comfortable silence.

“Hey, Marinette? Can I stay here a little longer?”

And so he does, he stays with Marinette until it’s too late for either of them to keep their eyes open. He says goodbye, with one last kiss on her hand’s dorsal, then flying back to his house, sliding into his window and detransforming onto his bed. Plagg pops out of the miraculous with a groan, complaining about food, and Adrien points to his mini-fridge. He smiles as his eyes close and his breathing slows. 

\-----

The late night balcony visits continued, becoming as often as his patrols with Ladybug. He no longer needed an excuse, and Marinette would be waiting for him with a plate of macarons or croissants. They had talked about everything that came to their minds, and some days, it’d be nothing and they’d just stare at the sky and stay in each other’s presence. 

But that was for Chat Noir. Adrien Agreste wasn’t so lucky in the Marinette department. 

She hadn’t really changed around his civilian form. So… he decided to improvise and tell Marinette he had a crush on his fencing partner. Probably (definitely) a risky move on his part but it landed him some time to hang out with her. And Kagami. At least it was a start.

So he walked into the city’s one and only ice rink on a cold Sunday morning, with 3 others by his side and his bodyguard. Marinette had invited Luka last minute, which for some reason made Adrien upset. It wasn’t that he disliked Luka, they were friends. They’ve met a generous amount of times in the past and there had been no bad interactions, in fact, he had attempted to teach Adrien a few songs on guitar. But there was something that felt off about him and Marinette giggling together, or holding each other’s hands while on the rink.Not that he was jealous or anything. 

His thoughts were interupted by who he presumed was the owner of the ice rink skating up to him and Kagami. 

“Hello there, Adrien Agreste!” He says loudly, Adrien smiles and says hi back, about to skate off but the man continued. “Would you like to sign up for private fencing lessons with our rink? It’ll only take a minute--”

“He’s busy doing fencing with me,” Kagami interupts him, pulling at Adrien’s arm while glaring at the man.

“Well then how about you advertise to your fans? They’d surely listen--” Kagami once again doesn’t let him finish, this time actually skating away, Adrien’s arm in her grip. The man seems defeated and goes to the seats, talking dejectedly to mayor Bourgeois 

And just as quick as he looks away, he sees Marinette trip on air and fall to the floor. Adrien rushes over to her, a hand out. He looks to his side, where Luka is, in the exact same stance. 

Marinette looks between the two of them, conflicted. It’s like that for a couple seconds, before Kagami skates up and between the two boys, picking up Marinette’s hand and in turn, the rest of her. She whispers something to Marinette, who looks startled, and backs off, now landing an expecting gaze to Adrien. Now it seems he is the one who is in the choosing one or the other position. Just as he’s about to go with Kagami, Marinette runs off, clearly upset.

“I’ll check up on her,” He says and follows her to the restroom area. “Marinette? Are you in there? You okay?”

“I’m fine,” She replies quickly. Adrien nods, knowing that she can’t see him. He looks down and around, trying to find something else to say but nothing comes to mind. Then he notices the layer of ice quickly moving closer and closer to him, and the rest of the building.

“Marinette!” Adrien yells, banging on the door. “Stay in there and hide, okay? There’s an akuma!”

He huffs before rushing into the mens restroom and watches as Plagg gets out of his shirt. 

“It seems we have to cut this date short,” Plagg snorts.

“Date?” Adrien sputters in denial before collecting himself and glaring. “Plagg, claws out!”

\-----

“Hey Adrien! Wait up!” Marinette breathes out, hands on her knees as she doubles over. 

“Yeah, Marinette?” Adrien says, stopping in front of the door

“We should do this more often. Hang out, I mean.” She giggles.

“Yeah. We should,” Adrien smiles.

\-----

“I should really charge you for those,” Marinette snorts as she watches Chat scarf down a plate of freshly made chocolate croissants. “You’ve eaten enough in the last 4 months to pay for my college and yet I haven’t even charged you,”

Chat grins, half-chewed food threatening to spill out. Marinette feigns to throw-up in response and the former rolls his eyes. 

“You don’t make me pay because I save Paris almost daily,” He says smugly. She laughs at him, a mischevious glint in her eyes as she nods. “Why are you doing that?”

“Doing what, kitty?” She smirks, leaning forward teasingly.

“You have this weird look in your eyes- it's like smug, but worse,” He huffs, eyes facing another direction. Their faces are nearly a foot apart but it’s all filled with tension, so anywhere is good to look as long as it isn’t her. Not that she’s bad to look at because Marinette was 100% a sight for sore eyes-- not that he liked her like that but--

She retreats to where she was, laughing, her eyes twinkling with the moonlight. Chat had not formally noticed how beautiful she really was before, but something about this moment made him realize.

\-----

“Good morning, Adrien!” Marinette says as she meets him on the front steps of the school. He was speaking to Nino, Max and Kim, and another boy, probably one of his fencing friends. The moment she spoke though, his head turned to meet her eyes. He waves bye to the boys and walks towards her. 

“Hello, Mari. How are you today?”

“I am good, a bit tired though,” Adrien internally smirks at her response.

“And why is that?” She blushes.

“I-I was t-talking to a f-friend… Yeah,” Marinette mutters shyly.

“What a coincidence. I was speaking with a friend last night too,” He was fully aware of the risk he took while saying that. He knew that Marinette wasn’t stupid and that she knew how to piece things together --she’s one of the smartest kids in their class-- and that if he kept on leaving hints like these, that there is a high chance of his secret identity no longer being that much of a secret but in his defense, it was fun. Fun to see the short-lasting confusion on her face, brows furrowed and head tilted like a puppy. Maybe, not just “fun” either. Maybe he found her cute. Just a little bit. 

Marinette furrows her brows, as he expected, but it’s shortlived and she quickly goes back to normal. 

“Oh, who? She asks. Adrien hadn’t expected that. 

“O-oh... no one?” Marinette laughs at his response. “And what about you, Mari?” 

“...No one,” 

\-----

Marinette prances around her room, seemingly hitting every corner as the lyrics to “She Looks So Perfect” by 5 Seconds of Summer blasts through the speakers of her phone. The sound was freeing, even more so due to the fact that it was a Saturday morning and she had 2 cups of coffee prior.

Tikki watched from behind a box in amusement as Marinette fumbled all over, snacking on apple slices. She had been cheering but stopped as she noticed a pair of green eyes and cat ears enter the room quietly from above. He stared at Marinette endearingly and would’ve for hours if not the bluenette slipping on her rug and nearly face-planting. He jumps over to where she is and catches her just as she’s about to reach the ground.

“Woah there, Princess!” He grins. Marinette grumbles something about letting her go but he laughs. “Falling for me, are you?”

“Shut up!” She yells, blushing as she pushes him away. She walks to the other side of her room and starts to open the latch leading to the rest of her house. “I’m getting some snacks, you can make fun of me later,”

Chat Noir nods cutely and goes to sit on her chaise, glancing around the room, something he hadn’t really have time to every other time he was in there. He does however recall seeing posters of him --well Adrien-- in front of her desk. They weren’t there, save for a few and in their place were pictures of all her friends and a couple of her designs. He couldn’t help but wonder what made her take them down.

A loud crash interupts his thoughts though and he worriedly rushes down the ladder to find Marinette on the ground. He chuckles at her annoyed expression.

“Stop laughing!” Marinette whines, staying placid on the floor where she had previously fallen, in the process, crushing a boxful of colorful macarons.

“I’m not laughing at you, per se,” Chat Noir says, clearly attempting to bite back a small smile as Marinette picks herself up from the ground and dusts macaron crumbs off her shoulder. Keyword, attempting. “I’m laughing with you,”

“I’m not even laughing!” She pouts angrily. Chat gives into humor and starts laughing loudly, wheezes coming out every once in a while as he falls to the floor. 

“Stupid cat…”

\----- 

At this point, Adrien knows what he’s done to himself.

He had orginally started to hang out with Marinette to become closer, to get her to like him so they could be friends, or even anything close to that but he’s gotten way past that point and he can’t do much but awknowledge that he has feelings for her. Or a specific feeling : love. 

The word still felt strange in his mouth, especially discussing Marinette but it’s started to feel more and more like how he felt towards his lady. Was it even possible to like more than one person at once? Who knows, because he doesn’t. 

He would ask his father for advice but god knows he wouldn’t get anything but a closed door to his face. Nino probably wouldn’t be that much of help either, and he’d also likely tell Alya leading to a very awkward conversation. But then, talking to Ladybug about his relationship problems when he still has a crush on her would be strange, so he’s forced by his own mind to just sit and wait. 

Wait for what? He doesn’t know.

\-----

“Marinette, can I ask for your advice on something?” Chat Noir asks quiety. His eyes were staring off into the distance and Marinette was concerned from when he first landed on her balcony that evening but she had chosen not to confront him. She hums in confirmation, leaning closer to him to show support. Her head was against his shoulder. 

If they had turned their faces towards each other, there was no chance either of them could resist the temptation to mush their faces. 

“Who would you choose if it was between the person you’ve liked for years and the new person you like but just as intensely?” He spoke quietly and quickly, and if it weren’t for their proximity she might not have even heard but she did. 

“Well that’s a hard choice to make, I don’t think I would ever be able to….” She says trailing off.

“That’s one of the million things we have in common,” Chat mutters sarcastically. Marinette giggles. He smiles at the sound.

“I suppose so… Who are the lucky ladies who have your heart, kitty?” She asks, eyes curious. He hesitates. She notices that he’s hesitating and rushes to speak. “You don’t have to say if you don’t want--”

“No. I want to tell you,” He decides. “The first girl, the one I’ve loved for longer is Ladybug. That was probably obvious but still…”

He trails off, wondering if he should really go through with it. If he were to confess now, even though he knew Marinette wouldn’t make him feel bad, he also knew that he would fall deeper in her for it. He looks at her to track her expression and she looks weirdly giddy with a blush on her face. 

“The second one, the more recent one is….” She nods him on eagerly. He takes a deep breath and looks her in the eyes with a small smile. It wasn’t a smirk or a suggestive grin, it was a genuine smile, one filled with love and affection. “... You. It’s you, Marinette. I don’t know when or how it started but my feelings for you have been growing and piling atop each other and this is my breaking point because I really don’t think I could have hidden it for much longer.”

He had said it all in one breath, eyes closing as soon as he started rambling to avoid both embarrassment and tears. He doesn’t even want to try opening them, so he awkwardly brings his hands to cover them. He hears Marinette giggle again and he doubts everything for a second, considering just running away and never showing his face again but the warm and gentle touch of her fingers as they move his own from his face is something he never wants to not feel. 

“Open your eyes, kitty,” She says. So, against all his better judgement and internal monologuing, he does. And boy is he glad.

Marinette’s eyes are lit up beautifully, all of her features glowing with the moon, not that she needed it. The sun could explode and Marinette’s smile would be able to keep the world warm for the rest of time. She looks at him like they’re the only ones on earth and he’s nothing less than mesmerized. 

“I love you,” He blurts out. At first he’s embarrassed but she smiles wider and her nose crinkles with it. He wants to see it again. He says it again. “I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you!”

He starts shouting, twirling around gracefully on the railing and Marinette watches endearingly as her kitty proclaims his feelings proudly.

“I love you too,” She says, finally. He stops, leg mid-air and jumps down to her side. 

“Do you mean it?”

“Of course I do!” She seems offended by his tone but it’s nothing too serious and they both lean into a hug, hands draped around each other while the only things closer to them were their clothes.. “I actually don’t remember a point where I didn’t…”

He blushes and pulls away slightly, words nearly getting caught up in his throat as he meets her eyes for the millionth time. 

“Can I kiss you, princess?” 

“Thank you for asking, but next time, know you don’t have to,” She says with a smug expression before pulling his face closer and closer until their lips meet.

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by Taylor Swift's song, "It's nice to have a friend"
> 
> i also might make a follow up to this with a reveal or some other sort of epilogue so tell me if you would like that... meanwhile happy early valentines day!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had a lot of fun writing this so I hope you had fun reading it! .... please give feedback!!
> 
> honestly i kinda made myself blush w this one


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